If you are like me, you remember the day…but not a lot of the details. I remember our son’s better than I do mine. Regardless, you go high school boy to Wabash Man-in-the-making in the space of a couple of hours. (Mom, your home cooking also became sooooo good!)

You pick up your packet of “stuff” and you begin making your way – the transition is incredible if you think about it. These young men start the journey to becoming a man responsible for their actions…in simple but concrete ways.

Coach Kyle Brumett talks to a family

Familiar faces in the group ease part of that transition – for students and parents alike. Coach Kyle Brumett (left), head basketball coach, was there to talk a little “X and O” and a lot of Wabash College.

He’s tall!

First Lady Lora Hess seems to be asking Trustee Dave Callecod ’89 where his son, Nolan ’19, got his height.

President Hess talks to a set of parents as Dean for Advancement Michelle Janssen looks on.

Of course, the central piece of of the day is the welcoming of the families into the Wabash community. President Hess does that in a very visible fashion at the Ringing In Ceremony. He also does it one-on-one – helping families to understand the Wabash isn’t a four year educational business exchange..Wabash is 4-LIFE.

Yes, the times have changed, the faces have changes, and orientation is better than ever. What hasn’t changed is the zeal for life and learning that becomes a part of the DNA of every Wabash man.

Cal Black ’66 sent me this photo of an informal get-together in Phoenix. The photo was taken at Zipp’s Sports Grill, the site of the annual Monon Bell telecast party in Phoenix. (Look for the Grunge to be there this coming November for the telecast party.)

David Morgan, director of Campus Services, gives a tour through the new student housing

The kitchen features a stove, refrigerator, dish washer, and microwave.

This is the ground floor 2 person room. Upstairs are two singles and a double for a total of 6 guys in each side of the townhouse.

These could be busy every weekend

A single person room at the end of the hallway on the second floor.

Overall, the new housing is very nice. Our guys will have the comforts of apartment style living while they are right in the middle of the new residential area. The layout will be conducive to study but also to larger gatherings. They look great to me!

Wabash, through the Schroeder Center for Career Development, is hosting its first-ever Recruiting College Talent Summit. This program is designed to help HR teams connect better with millennials…and in doing so, Wabash men! Here’s the information fro our friends in Career Services:

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This fall Career Services is pleased to announce the first-ever WabashWorks | Recruiting College Talent Summit to be held on September 9. If you’ve ever thought, “We should really get some more Wabash men in here,” now is the perfect time to put that thought into motion. The summit will be a free event, focused on helping recruiters and HR professionals from a wide-variety of fields, levels of experience, and locations better connect with millennials. Featuring keynote speakers Susan S. LaMotte, CEO and founder at exaqueo, and Jason Seiden, CEO at Brand Amper, the event is sure to be fun and informative. LaMotte and Seiden will also offer their expertise on employer branding, recruiting technology, and social media use.

In addition to sharing best practices, the event aims to introduce recruiters who may not be familiar with Wabash College to our unique culture and dedicated students. We will offer Sphinx Club-led tours of campus to highlight our traditions and wrap up the day with a networking dinner. Over dinner, which will be held in the brand new Center for Innovation, Business, and Entrepreneurship HQ in downtown Crawfordsville, attendees will also have the opportunity to network with students – possibly identifying some early candidates – and network with other professionals.

For alumni, it will be the perfect way to introduce the recruiters or HR professionals at your organization to your alma mater – show them what makes Wabash so special and why they should want to hire Wabash talent. Additional information and registration can be found on the event page at wabash.edu/careers/recruiters/summit. Career Services invites all alumni to attend, share the invitation with the recruiters at your organizations, and share with anyone else in your network who you think can offer excellent opportunities for Wabash men.

The Schroeder Center for Career Development staff welcomes questions from anyone who may be interested, as well as introductions to others in your network. We challenge you, Wabash Alumni, to spread the word and help create new opportunities for the Wabash men who will graduate this May.

This past Monday Crawfordsville was recognized as a recipient of the Stellar Communities Designation Program – you can read the piece in the Crawfordsville Journal Review here.

This designation opens the door for federal and private funding. Mayor Barton and his team have been hard at work developing plans to improve the Crawfordsville environment and make the city and surrounding area more attractive to those seeking a place to live and work.

Summer is over. Done. Time to get serious about studies…and football…and homework…and soccer…and pledgeship…and cross country…and meeting new friends…and developing those life-long relationships that will form a big part of life for the next 80 years or so.

Sure, this week there are still some open parking slots and the cars of the students haven’t taken all of the end slots. But it will happen.

The Phi Psi fire alarm hasn’t gone off in weeks…but it will happen.

The senior bench still says “05 Rules!” but my gut tells me that will change within 10 days.

You can still catch a shot of the Mall like the one above…but those days are numbered.

The Wabash Class of 2015 is “out there”…finding their way in the world. The Wabash Class of 2019…that’s 2019…will officially start on Saturday.

Times change….but they also remain the same.

Yesterday I found myself in a meeting with two other Wabash men – Class of 1985 and Class of 1997. We agreed on one very fundamental thing – just like Wabash did in “our” day, it still does today. It takes young men and pushes them to exceed even their highest standards. You can have all kinds of names for it – diamonds in the rough, untapped potential, etc. Bottom line is simple – the guys in the class of 2019 will be leaders and agents of change when they leave.

We get the best seat in the house. We get to watch it happen. Day in and day out.

Just like Jonah Woods ’18. Jonah is working this summer with IT. He came to my office to install my new computer. It gave me a chance to get to know Jonah. We talked about Wabash, cross country, and a number of other topics. He’s articulate and thoughtful and he took the computer install seriously…like we’d expect.

I’ll miss the more casual dress but I’m ready for the guys to be back!

That’s right, the Purdue football team is on campus today to practice. Evidently this morning they practiced on the natural turfon our practice field.

It doesn’t really matter if you are a Boilermaker fan or not, you have to cheer for coach Darrell Hazell. I think he’s worked tirelessly to turn the program around and the signs of that happening are clearly evident. He’ll need more time…but sometimes this day and age there just isn’t much time.

Regardless, it’s pretty special that the Boilermakers are at the home of the Little Giants!